It all starts on Monday at the Dallas Museum of Art, when it rolls out its new Friends + Partners program. The most enticing component is the DMA's new policy of free general admission and free memberships, which it defined on Thursday as "a program of engagement that is intended to build long-term relationships with visitors and to emphasize participation over the transaction-based membership model that has become common practice among museums."

Director Maxwell Anderson met with the press on Thursday to offer a preview of what guests can expect when they start showing up -- for free -- at 11 a.m. Monday. For it's at that hour that the DMA becomes the first art museum in the country to offer the tandem of free memberships and free general admission. Special exhibitions will still carry a fee, although the new program offers a gateway to discounts to help reduce the cost.

“The idea was a simple one,”Anderson said. “Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best. If memberships mean belonging, and we think everybody belongs here, then everybody should be a member.”

He has been “amazed,” he said, by response from around the world. He said he instigated the change because “it was the right thing to do” and made economic sense.

The DMA and most U.S.museums operate differently from counterparts in New York and San Francisco, where, he said, “international tourism is the key driver of so much of the rationale behind charging high admission prices. Because that opportunity exists, our peer institutions act on it. And that’s understandable.” For museums such as the DMA, admission revenue constitutes only 4 percent of an annual budget, provoking the question: “If it’s 4 percent nationally, and less than that in many other cities including ours, can’t we figure out a way to look for that gap through philanthropy?”

Anderson said the DMA follows a different model from performing-arts institutions, whose admission fees make up as much as 40 percent of an annual budget.

“We’re not doing something to rattle the cages of our colleagues or make life miserable for other institutions around the country or the world,”Anderson said. “We’re simply saying that, for us, this makes sense.”

Will there be glitches? Almost certainly, “but that’s part of the culture of the DMA today,”Anderson said. “We are risk tolerant. We recognize that aspiration comes with risk.”

The new Friends program will be not unlike getting a boarding pass at the airport, he said, the only difference being, “You’ll be going to lots of places here, the Pacific islands, Africa, Europe… Here, you can do it all in one day.”

Anderson’s wave of change also included importing to the DMA from his previous stop at the Indianapolis, Ind., Museum of Art, his deputy director, Rob Stein.

Museums, Stein said, “are incredibly slow to change. They’re not as good as other industries in adapting to the world around us. At the DMA, we want to be different. We are the first museum launching a program of this kind and scale.”

Stein showed us some of the ways the program will work: When you arrive at the museum, you will register, get a card and log in. You’re dropped onto a profile screen, which begins the process of letting you acquire badges. New DMA literature describes the badges as “bundles of activities.” Earning badges “unlocks special rewards and recognition like free tickets, behind-the-scenes tours, discounts on shopping and dining and access to exclusive experiences” at the DMA.

Badges underscore the point, Stein said, that “incentives are an important part of driving how people use the museum.” Badges won’t just open the doors, Stein said. “They will end up being a history of your connection to the DMA.”

When you enroll on Monday, you'll receive a card that allows you to track your "engagement" with the DMA, both on-site and online. You can then begin to acquire those badges, which will act as the gateway to "discounts, access to special programs, free tickets and other opportunities."